Hands-on: Garmin’s affordable vívofit 4 can hold a charge for a full year

Editor’s note: We’ve published our full Garmin vívofit 4 review. Head to this link to find out what we think!

Garmin’s vívofit 3 is our choice as the best cheap fitness tracker for a few reasons. It’s customizable, you don’t have to charge it, and it comes with most of the activity tracking features found in higher-end devices. Garmin introduced a better looking model at CES 2018, the vívofit 4.

The first thing you’ll notice about the vívofit 4 is its updated design — it’s much sleeker than last year’s model, though it shares the same general construction. You can swap out different colored bands, which will cost you about $20 each.

We were able to briefly go hands-on with the vívofit 4, and we noticed the button is much clickier this time around, and the screen is much clearer than that of the previous model.

Speaking of the screen, the vívofit 4 has an always-on color display, with the ability to customize watch faces and themes in the Garmin Connect app.

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But the main draw to the vívofit lineup is the fact that Garmin packs in tons of features without charging an arm and a leg. The vívofit 4 will track your steps taken, distance traveled, calories burned, and sleep. As far as sport profiles are concerned, it’ll track walking, running, elliptical, biking, and swimming. That’s right, the vívofit 4 sports a 5 ATM water resistance rating.

Like most other Garmin fitness trackers, the vívofit 4 will give you personalized step goals each day, and will automatically pause/resume your workout if it senses you’re taking a break. It also comes with a countdown timer, a stopwatch, support for multiple alarms, a weather widget, and a Find My Phone feature.

The best part? You don’t have to charge it. Ever. Garmin says the battery will last over one year on a single charge since it uses a coin cell battery.

The Garmin vívofit 4 is available on Amazon for $79.99. It’s available in white, lime green speckled, and black. Interchangeable bands are available in a speckled merlot and speckled navy pack for $29.99, or you can buy separate speckled black, white, or black bands for $19.99.